Queen and Country

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Queen and Country is a comic book published by Oni Press and written by Greg Rucka with various artists illustrating.

The series is centered on Tara Chace, an operative of the Special Operations Section of SIS, colloquially known as the Minders. It attempts to portray the bureaucracy and politics with which the agents deal with realistically, as well as including the dangerous missions typical of the spy genre.

It was inspired by the British television series The Sandbaggers (1978-1980), which was created and primarily written by Ian Mackintosh. Mackintosh is heavily praised in an essay by Rucka in Issue #1 of Queen and Country.

A Queen and Country prose novel, A Gentleman's Game, was published in 2004, also featuring Tara Chace and making reference to the events of the comic book series. A second Tara Chase novel, Private Wars, was published in 2005. The novels tie in the comic series; issue 29 depicts events immediately after A Gentleman's Game.

Special "Declassified" issues of the comic book have also been published and deal specifically with the past missions of various characters.

Other recurring characters in the series alongside Tara Chace include Director of Operations Paul Crocker, Deputy Chief of Service Donald Weldon, Chief of Service Frances Barclay (known colloquially as "C"), Mission Control Officer and Main Communications Officer Alexis and former Head of Special Section Tom Wallace.

[edit] Storylines

Operation Broken Ground

(Queen & Country #1-4)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Steve Rolston.

Operation Morningstar

(Queen & Country #5-7)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Brian Hurtt, Bryan O'Malley, and Christine Norrie.

Operation Crystal Ball

(Queen & Country #8-12)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Leandro Fernández.

Operation Blackwall

(Queen & Country #13-15)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by J. Alexander.

Operation Stormfront

(Queen & Country #16-20)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Carla Speed McNeil.

Operation Dandelion

(Queen & Country #21-24)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Mike Hawthorne.

Untitled

(Queen & Country #25)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Steve Rolston.

Operation Saddlebags

(Queen & Country #26-28)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Mike Norton and Steve Rolston.

Operation Red Panda

(Queen & Country #29-current)
Written by Greg Rucka. Art by Chris Samnee.

Translated editions of the collected volumes are available in Polish, and several volumes are available in Spanish or German. A motion picture is also under development.